Page 86 of Love Bleeds Red
“Polly!” Bailey cradles her cheeks in her palms. “Stay with us!”
I sense someone coming, and force myself to back away from Bailey. Damon sees me move, and comes to my side. We both hear them at the same time. Footsteps. Multiple sets, stalking through the underbrush.
“Company coming,” Damon mutters, checking his weapon.
I glance back at Bailey, who’s clinging onto Polly. “Fuck,” I say under my breath. She’s going to hate me for this, but someone needs to make a decision, and I won’t let Bailey get taken again… or any of us for that matter.
“Bailey,” I say quickly. Her tear-streaked face turns to me. “We might have to?—”
“No.” She sniffs and wipes her eyes, her voice turning to steel. “I’m not leaving her.”
“Bailey,” Jasper argues. “I’ll carry her, but we have to move.”
I point my gun toward the approaching footsteps. There’s no time. Even if we move now, they’ll catch up to us.
Then two figures stop just over a small hill, close enough that I can make out obvious details. One is another guard, this one more stocky than tall. He’s in black, with a vest on, like the others.
But the second figure is tall and carries himself differently. It looks like he’s wearing a long coat, similar to what I’ve seen on businessmen walking around the city.
I know it’s Alfred immediately… without seeing a single detail up close. But what will he do when he realizes it’s me here?
“Lee?” Damon asks, closing in next to me.
“Wait,” I mutter. “Don’t shoot… not yet.”
Alfred moves closer and Bailey scrambles backward, covering Polly’s unconscious form with her own. Her eyes are wide with fear, telling me everything I need to know about what she’s gone through here.
He stops, and holds his hand out for the guard to do the same. Our eyes meet, and recognition sparks in his features but only for a split second.
“Sir,” one of his guards says, “should we?—”
“No.” He studies our group, keeping his expression blank. His gaze lingers on Bailey’s terrified face, before moving to Polly’s body behind her. “What a mess.”
He glances at me again, and I see him take in my stance, my weapon, the way I’m positioned protectively near Bailey. I can’t get a read on him or what he’ll do next and it has me primed to fight.
“Let them go,” he says finally with a wave of his hand.
The guard can’t comprehend what he’s heard. “Sir?”
“You heard me. Clean this up.” He gestures toward where we left the other guard’s body. “All of it.”
Bailey lets out a small, broken whimper, and Alfred’s attention shifts back to her. For just a moment, his mask of indifference slips, and I see the possessive urge to rip her from us rise up.
“Goodbye, my dear,” he says softly. “I do hope we’ll see each other again soon.” Then he turns to walk away, the guard reluctantly following.
I’m shaking with rage, unable to lower my weapon. It would be so easy to shoot him in the back right now. Watch him bleed out slowly… suffer for whatever it is he’s done to Bailey. To me. To so many others.
“That’s it!” I shout. “You’re just fucking letting us go?”
Damon touches my shoulder and I flinch. “Brother, what the hell are you doing?”
“No,” I seethe. “He needs to pay. He needs to?—”
“Guys, we have to go!” Jasper interrupts.
“Oh God. No…”
Bailey’s voice snaps me back to reality. Shit. Her friend. She’s hurt. She?—
